Albany Museum, Grahamstown

The Albany Museum in Grahamstown is a vast complex of static and mobile displays and a series of buildings housing a wide variety of artifacts, educational packages, historic dioramas, cultural collections and accessible science. For professional students, researchers and hobbyists alike, the Albany Museum represents a national asset.

Did you know?

The diamond display at the Observatory Museum boasts a full-size replica of the Eureka diamond - the 1st diamond discovered in South Africa.

The Albany Museum complex, established in 1855, is the second-oldest museum in South Africa. It is a true ‘living’ museum, with a wide range of portable exhibits, educational programmes and historical facilities.

There are five museums that make up the Albany Museum complex in Grahamstown: the Observatory Museum, the History Museum, the Natural Sciences Museum, Fort Selwyn and the Old Provost.

One of the most fascinating characters who lived in the little Eastern Cape city of Grahamstown was watchmaker-jeweller, Henry Carter Galpin.

Now called the Observatory Museum, Galpin’s house offers a glimpse into frontier life and his own, very busy, 36 years in the ‘City of Saints’. It also reflects his passions: optics, astronomy and the measuring of time.

The building is topped with a tower containing a Victorian camera obscura, believed to be the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. From here, Galpin – and now you, the visitor – could watch the comings and goings of Grahamstown in old-style panorama. There’s a telescope room, a meridian room, a Victorian Room and a special display on the birth of the diamond industry in South Africa.

The History Museum once focused almost exclusively on the 1820 Settlers who came to South Africa from Great Britain, but now displays an ethnographic collection dealing with southern Nguni peoples and the traditional dress of the amaXhosa.

The Natural Science Museum is a strong research facility but also boasts wonderful displays of meteorites, dinosaur reconstructions and the various earth sciences.

Fort Selwyn, which is opened on request only, stands on Gunfire Hill overlooking Grahamstown. It was supposed to be a refuge for citizens and a garrison for the military units that were stationed there from 1836. A colourful fact about Fort Selwyn is that, until 1870, a cannon was fired at 9am every morning – some say to remind local civil servants of regular working hours. Fort Selwyn, which later fell into disrepair, was restored in 1977.

The Old Provost was built by the Royal Engineers and served as a barracks and a prison. It was built in a panoptikon shape, consisting of an outer circle of cells and exercise yards which could be watched from a central guard house. The Old Provost stands near Rhodes University and is also opened on request only.

Apart from the Albany Museum complex, there are several other historical and research institutions in Grahamstown that might interest visitors.

The Cory Library for Historical Research and the International Library of African Music, which has a collection of more than 200 traditional African musical instruments, and is a teaching, publishing and research facility, are additional research institutions attached to Rhodes University.

The National English Literary Museum, also attached to Rhodes, will be worth seeing for those interested in the English language in South Africa.

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